About Infusion Therapy

Infusion therapy involves the administration of medication through a needle or catheter. It is prescribed when a patient’s condition is so severe that it cannot be treated effectively by oral medications. Typically, “infusion therapy” means that a drug is administered intravenously, but the term also may refer to situations where drugs are provided through other non-oral routes, such as intramuscular injections and epidural routes (into the membranes surrounding the spinal cord).

Until the 1980s, patients receiving infusion therapy had to remain in the inpatient setting for the duration of their therapy. Heightened emphasis on cost-containment in health care, as well as developments in the clinical administration of the therapy, led to strategies to administer infusion therapy in alternate settings. For individuals requiring long-term therapy, inpatient care is not only tremendously expensive but also prevents the individual from resuming normal lifestyle and work activities.

Home infusion has been proven to be a safe and effective alternative to inpatient care for many disease states and therapies. For many patients, receiving treatment at home or in an outpatient infusion suite setting is preferable to inpatient care. Many home infusion therapy providers operate one or more ambulatory infusion suites which are ideally suited for certain patient-therapy situations.

An infusion therapy provider is most normally a “closed-door”, state-licensed pharmacy that specializes in provision of infusion therapies to patients in their homes or other alternate-sites—called a home infusion therapy pharmacy. The infusion therapy always originates with a prescription order from a qualified physician who is overseeing the care of the patient.

Learn more about provision of infusion therapies in the home and other alternate-site care settings from the resources we present here. If you don’t find your answer here, we invite you to contact NHIA.